Ivan, the Illegitimate Son of Perdes
Ivan, the Illegitimate Son of Perdes
"This is good."
Back from the Imperial Palace, Diana was eating the ramyun Camilla had prepared using the soup base.
Ever since she'd discovered that eating it quieted the voice in her head, Diana had been seeking out ramyun once every three days.
How could she ignore something that brought her mind peace just from eating it?
And the more she ate, the clearer it became.
Camilla knew exactly where Lucas was.
"How long do you intend to keep hiding it?"
Her ramyun finished, Princess Diana faced the woman across from her—the one hiding her face behind a fan and shrugging her shoulders.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"...I mean Sir Lucas. The one you have with you."
"As I've told you repeatedly, I do not have Sir Lucas with me."
"Don't lie. You wretched— ...No. Lady Camilla, this very ramyun you've brought is obviously his work."
"I told you. The ramyun soup base was developed by an alchemist named Riman and a dwarf called Blackbeard."
"......Then why haven't you brought him here?"
"Because I have my own plans."
Camilla smiled and sipped her black tea.
Her elegant movements were utterly composed, without a single misstep.
"Obviously, you're planning to bring him along when you officially sell ramyun to the nobility."
"Hmm—, am I?"
Diana swallowed a sigh and set down her chopsticks.
This was entirely her own blunder.
She should have stopped Lucas from leaving from the start.
She hadn't known his worth when he was there, and she'd simply let someone precious walk away.
'Regretting it now is too late.'
Princess Diana's nature was to prepare for what lay ahead rather than cling to what was already past.
"I seem to recall you promising not to take my person in exchange for your political support."
"Certainly. I won't break that promise, Lady Camilla."
"And yet right now, you look filled to the brim with the intention of taking him the moment you can."
"You speak as if Sir Lucas belongs to you."
Crackle!
Sparks flew between the princess and Camilla.
And catching the shrapnel from those sparks head-on was Saint Amelia, seated between them and sipping warm water.
"L-Ladies. I don't think now is the time for that sort of talk...."
Saint Amelia cautiously raised a hand, inserting herself between the two women.
"Saintess, please be quiet for a moment."
"This is an important discussion."
"Uuh... I-It's fine to talk about Sir Lucas, but there are matters far more pressing."
Amelia, thoroughly deflated between the two of them, hunched her shoulders and stammered the words out with visible difficulty.
"To subjugate the western nobles, we have to leave as soon as tomorrow."
The saintess was a person of considerable influence in her own right, but the sheer force radiating from the two young ladies made her instinctively shrink back.
"She's not wrong."
"We've already obtained testimony from Bellosa's knights, and we've also succeeded in rescuing the knights who were escorting the saintess. We need to move."
At the saintess's words, the two women suspended their power struggle for the moment.
"Saintess, have you met with them?"
"Yes."
Saint Amelia brought her hands together, eyes squeezed shut, and offered a prayer.
"Many of them have survived. I believe it is thanks to the watchful care of the Mother God."
Mika, the female knight who had disguised herself as the saintess, had also survived and returned to the capital.
Knowing so many were alive, Amelia had offered prayers of gratitude to the goddess.
Of course, there had been deaths. Over the following days, she had also offered prayers for their rest.
And now.
Having gathered her resolve, she announced she would accompany the princess on her campaign.
"This is the Order's demonstration of firm support for Your Highness's legitimacy."
Diana gave a bright smile.
"Thank you, Saintess. It gives me strength."
"The goddess commanded me to follow."
Observing this, Camilla nodded.
"If the saintess is with us, the soldiers' morale will certainly rise."
Seeing Camilla shift into work mode, Diana did the same.
"Now that we have definitive evidence against the demon king worshippers, we can't afford to delay. Golden Wagon, continue gathering intelligence on this. The more evidence, the better."
"We'll prepare things so thoroughly that no one can raise a single doubt."
"Two months should be enough to subjugate the western demon king worshippers."
"Will you formally begin the succession process upon your return from the campaign?"
Diana nodded.
"The nobles who support the First Prince will naturally drift to my side."
Even now, a number of nobles were visiting the Rose Palace to curry favor with Princess Diana.
It was evidence that the Noble Faction—the First Prince's massive support base—was beginning to fracture, little by little.
"Good. Then I'll need to begin my own preparations."
"I'll offer prayers for all of you."
The three women seated at the same table smiled almost in unison.
For the time being, they each needed the others.
Diana and Camilla looked at each other and exchanged forced smiles.
***
Duke Biyod Perdes.
If you asked who was the richest man in the empire after the emperor, people would point to the Golden Wagon.
But if you asked who possessed the greatest power after the emperor, the answer was, naturally, House Perdes.
House Perdes.
A house whose lands directly bordered the many kingdoms of the east, a house that guarded the eastern frontier.
It was the empire's single most enormous powerhouse—not only the direct line of Duke Perdes, but his cadet branches as well held multiple count's titles.
Their power was so immense it was said the entire eastern region lay within Perdes's sphere of influence far more than the emperor's.
Hair that gleamed black like ebony was the hallmark of the direct Perdes line.
The head of this House Perdes and lord of the Duchy of Perdes, Duke Biyod Perdes, sat in his office and pressed a hand to his own shining black hair.
"Idiotic western bastards... Worship the demon king, in this empire? How long has the demon king been gone, and they're still clinging to the power of a lost relic from the past?"
Those idiot western bastards had wrecked everything.
The plan had been for the nobility to unite, wholeheartedly support the First Prince, eventually raise him to the throne, and in return, reduce the emperor's influence over the provincial territories while strengthening the power of the nobles who ruled them.
Of course, if the kidnapping and murder of the saintess had succeeded, it would have gone far more smoothly.
But.
'It failed.'
They'd even handed over a critical weakness.
Now the only option was to cut those nobles loose, wasn't it?
No matter how minor a noble, every single defection inflicted damage.
Worse, some nobles who had been horrified by the western faction's actions were now beginning to turn toward the Second Princess. That, too, was a problem.
"The Second Princess is in better shape than expected."
That had been the start of every variable.
The Second Princess, Diana.
Unlike the First Princess and the Second Prince, she was a monster of a woman who, by her own abilities alone, was achieving results comparable to the First Prince—who drew the Noble Faction's support by dint of that very faction.
Even Perdes privately believed the Second Princess was the true timber of an emperor.
But if she became emperor, imperial authority would without question grow far stronger than it currently was.
'That cannot be allowed.'
A stronger imperial authority meant, in other words, a weakening of the nobility's power.
Before he was a servant of the empire, he was the head of House Perdes.
He had been confident they had the strength to make the First Prince crown prince.
"Haa... Regret's pointless now."
Anxiety was spreading among the nobility—anxiety that the First Prince might not become the heir after all.
"Tch. Shaken so easily."
The First Prince wasn't poor timber either, but...
He couldn't surpass the radiant brilliance and talent displayed by the Second Princess, Diana.
'So natural talent wins out in the end.'
Duke Perdes exhaled a sigh and thought of his own children.
If Princess Diana became emperor, was there anyone among his current offspring with the ability to preserve his house?
Perdes shook his head.
"There isn't."
They were the sort who would get swept up by her and sell off the whole house.
But there was one exception.
His child, but one whose potential had yet to be confirmed.
Duke Perdes turned to the secretary before him and asked.
"How is Ivan faring?"
His bastard son, Ivan.
The desire he had once slaked upon a common woman with beautiful black hair.
The product of that desire.
-I will leave quietly. I will live as though I never existed. I will not dare to covet the name Perdes. So please, do not command me to erase the child.
The mother of Ivan, upon whom he had slaked his desire, surfaced in his mind.
Beautiful features, and black hair that resembled the tresses of House Perdes.
Unable to overcome the sense of perverse transgression it stirred in him, he had violated her, forced himself upon her.
She was a commoner. He felt no guilt whatsoever.
To a blue-blooded noble, a commoner was little more than a toy to be played with—one that brought no consequences.
"I was told that child also bears the black hair of Perdes."
It was time to prepare for the future.
He needed to prepare for the contingency that the First Prince might not become emperor.
It would be the worst-case scenario, but should such a thing truly come to pass...
'I must designate a child capable of protecting House Perdes after my death as my successor.'
Just as the emperor was currently doing.
"Bring Ivan to me. I will assess his aptitude."
"Understood, Your Grace."
Duke Perdes's blue eyes glinted.
***
After driving Gerard out of Castle Britten, my days had been peaceful.
Andrea helped with prepping the ingredients.
Bldi personally drained the blood from the meat we received.
The knights received Andrea's hell-training like any other day.
And today, Michelle was once again eating a fish dish.
I did wonder if it was really okay for a mermaid to eat fish, but...
"Isn't it obvious that mermaids eat fish?"
When she smiled at me so matter-of-factly, I accepted it.
We were living in a world where an elf ate meat. A mermaid eating fish wasn't strange at all.
'Hm-hm, that's right.'
Even after learning Michelle was a mermaid, my relationship with her hadn't changed.
Ah. If there was one thing.
"Lucas, it's to thank you, but... I don't suppose you'd consider visiting my home sometime? I'd like to treat you properly."
"You mean a mansion?"
"No, of course I mean the Dragon Palace."
She kept trying to lead me down into the depths of the ocean.
"I'm fine, really."
"Is it because you think my Abamama might be there? Then maybe when Abamama isn't home...."
Was it my imagination that Michelle sometimes showed an odd sort of fixation?
"Fufu, I like it."
"Huh?"
"I like your cooking, Lucas."
Michelle said this as she delicately picked up and ate the flesh of a grilled, deboned mackerel.
"Why don't you keep a little distance from the boss?"
Andrea stepped between Michelle and me, blocking her from getting any closer.
"Oh my, whatever are you doing? How uncouth."
"You're the uncouth one. I don't know why you keep wagging your tail at the boss."
"Wagging my tail? All I have are legs."
"That's not what tail means!"
Whenever Andrea and Michelle started sniping at each other, Bldi would come scurrying up and tug at my sleeve.
"Master, be careful. You mustn't be fooled by that woman...."
Michelle retreating a step under the excessive vigilance of my staff had become part of the recent morning routine.
"You must be so pleased, Sir Lucas."
"To be so beloved by women."
"I need to hurry and master spreading my mana thin across a blade so I can become a man who cooks well...."
"Sir Lucas's popularity must surely come from his cooking skills, wouldn't you say?"
The knights looked at me with undisguised envy.
The days followed the same pattern, but it was true that the dynamics inside that daily life were shifting, bit by bit.
But the single biggest change was this.
"Grant me your instruction once more today!"
Ivan, standing next to me with a wok in his hand.
A bandana around his head and an apron tied at his waist, Ivan's eyes shone as he looked at me.
How did this happen? Well...
-Sir Lucas, I beg you to teach me!
Ivan had come to find me out of nowhere and dropped to his knees.